Most people use the term stalker when joking about their social media profiles, or people at school that they think have a crush on them. However, there is nothing more scary than knowing that you are being watched and harassed by a mentally ill person. The problem with stalking is that, in the past, there were not many laws that could protect the victim. Nowadays, it is usually necessary to be harassed or hurt before proper laws are enacted. In a way we understand that it can be very difficult to decide whether or not an individual is actually in danger, but in most situations, a stalker will have little regard for their obsessions feelings, and when rejected, they usually react aggressively. Let’s take a look at the most popular cases of sadistic stalkers.

1. Dangerous Encounters: Theresa Saldana & Arthur Richard Jackson

Nowadays, there’s nothing unusual about hearing stories of celebrity stalkers, and obsessive fans. Luckily, not many of them were taken to the extreme. Actress Theresa Saldana wasn’t as lucky as celebrity these days. The Theresa, Arthur stalking situation, which escalated into violence, is also one of the first cases of celebrity stalking cases to have gained national attention. As you may very well know, in 1982, the 27-year-old actress had already appeared in great movies like Raging Bull and I wanna Hold Your Hand. However, it was her appearance in the movie Defiance that caught the eye of her obsessed fan: Arthur Richard Jackson. After seeing her perform, the 47-year-old Aberdeen Drifter traveled across the globe, illegally crossed the border, all to meet Seldana, kill her and join her in the after life.

To make his plan work, he hired a private investigator to fetch her mother’s phone number. Then he pretended to be working with director Marin Scorsese, and claimed he was interested in casting Seldana in a future movie. The mother provided him with her Hollywood address. Jackson traveled there, waited for her to exit her house and stabbed her 10 times with a hunting knife. The only reason Seldana survived was because a deliveryman, Jeffrey Fenn, rushed to the scene of the crime. She made a full recovery.

2. Dangerous Encounters: Priyadarshini Mattoo & Santosh Singh

This is undoubtedly the most controversial criminal case in the history of India, which involves the death of a 25-year-old law student, under the name of Priyadarshini Mattoo. You may not have noticed from the name, but she is a woman. Obviously, she drew the attention of another student, Santosh Singh, who decided to stalk, and harass her throughout the year, until she finally complained to the police. This did not hinder Santosh’s efforts, and on January 23, 1996 she was rapped, beaten and strangled to death with a wire.

Because Santosh’s father happened to be the Inspector-General on the police force, he was acquitted of the crime, to the uproar of the public. He was given the benefit of the doubt, but only seven years later, in 2006, he was sentenced to death for his crime. In the end he atoned for his crime with a life-time of imprisonment.

3.Dangerous Encounters: Collete Dwyer & Derrick Todd Lee

The biggest problem with stalking cases, as we already mentioned, is to be taken seriously by the authorities. This is what happened to Collette Dwyer, a woman who was harrased by a supposedly serial killer in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Derrick Todd Lee usually hung around her work place, and developed an obsession for her. In 1999 he broke into her apartment and claimed that all he wanted was to love and take care of Collete. Somewhere along the road, Derrick was accused and imprisoned for an unrelated crime. After 2 years in the prison he was set free and started stalking her again.

In 2003, Lee was quiestioned for the rape of a woman, and had a DNA sample taken, that linked him to other murders. Apparently he was the Baton Rouge Serial Killer, who took the life of seven women. He was sentenced to death but still sits in death row at Louisiana State Penitentiary.